MADRID: Police have arrested six Kurds in Spain suspected of financing armed activities of the outlawed militant group PKK in Turkey, the government said Tuesday.

"National police officers have broken up the financing and extorsion system of the Kurdish terrorist organisation PKK in Spain," the interior ministry announced in a statement.

The Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK) is branded a terrorist group by Ankara and its Western allies for its armed campaign for autonomy in southeast Turkey. Since the group took up arms in 1984, more than 40,000 people have died in the conflict, most of them Kurds.

"Those arrested were working to support armed activities in their country of origin and also collaborated with the logistical and propaganda teams that the terrorist organisation has in Turkey and other European countries," the statement said.

Four of the suspects were arrested in Madrid, one in Barcelona and one in the southeastern region of Murcia. In all, police searched 11 properties in the raids, it said.

It was not immediately clear when the arrests took place.

The ministry said 16 other "suspected terrorists" have been arrested in related raids in France.